Bellotti Semplicemente bianco, Triple A, Piedmont 2011

Let’s do what it says on the bottle and keep this one ‘semplicemente’. So simple in fact I’ll leave it to Stefano Bellotti to describe his wines for me…

“I just wanted to make wine. Wine to drink.”

“You don’t need to worry about the region or the varietal or the nose or whatever. When you do this you are intellectualizing wine, and wine doesn’t give a shit about being intellectual. So it’s “Simply” red and white: you bring them to the table and you don’t think about it, you just drink it. That’s it.”

So without complicating things, here are the basics on Bellotti’s white. It’s made from early picked Cortese grapes and not a drop of sulphur has been added. The flavours are left of centre with apples on the palate and nuts on the nose.

There is nothing mainstream about this wine, but it’s one you can take great pleasure in – simply and naturally.

:::BON:::

B = Biodynamic: cynics think its voodoo but this is basically holistic farming that uses manures and composts to improve soil life and the interaction of the vines with their environment.

O = Organic: farming without the use of inputs that can have adverse effects. ‘Non-systemic’ fungicides and pesticides are used in place of ‘systemic’ chemicals said to enter the ‘blood’ of a plant (akin to antibiotics in the human world).

N = Natural: no additives or aids (eg yeast, yeast food, added acid/enzymes/tannin) bar a touch of sulphur during aging or before bottling, if any at all.